germany said the u.s. defense secretary had said that the u.s. would be keeping up to 12,000 troops in afghanistan. but leon panetta said that was not the case. he said those figures were for the total international contingent, not the u.s. alone. the u.s. is counting on substantial support from its allies, but no firm decisions have yet been taken on which countries will be supplying the soldiers. >> mr. panetta officially asked germany to take on a role in the north. of course germany already is lead nation in the north. >> nato soldiers on the ground will have to wait for a final decision. the many open questions will be addressed at a special summit in june. >> stay with us. when we come back, we will look at italy. italians go to the polls this weekend. we will look at what is at stake and who are the biggest stakeholders. >> could he be back? silvio berlusconi making a lot of people very nervous. >> stay with us. we will be right back. >> welcome back, everyone. as we've heard, the markets have a close eye on those elections in italy. depen